Price: Carpal tunnel and circulation woes are separate issues

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NEW YORK -- What matters most for the Red Sox and David Price now is two things: Certainty in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome in his left wrist, and preventative measures. They seem to have a grasp on both after a thorough battery of tests this week.

A circulation issue Price described after a bad one-inning start in April indeed exists separately from the carpal tunnel diagnosis, Price said Thursday. So, to be clear, he is dealing with both carpal tunnel and poor circulation affecting his extremities. 

Other issues, including arm problems, have been ruled out,  said Price, who added that he'll make his scheduled start Saturday in Toronto.

“A lot of the testing that we did could have came back and said there was something wrong with my heart or something like that,” Price said Thursday at Yankee Stadium, after throwing a bullpen session. “Could have gotten some serious results from the tests that I did at the hospital and to get this, that was good. But I was very adamant about my elbow and my shoulder both being fine. Forearm as well. I knew it was in my wrist, and I knew it started there, and I knew it wasn't above that.”

Price and the Sox projected certainty a month ago as well, before Price’s carpal tunnel syndrome was discovered. Now, there’s more extensive testing backing up his instincts. 

To help relieve the carpal tunnel symptoms, Price said that he’s going to use a technique called dry needling. He said he feels numbness in his thumb, pointer and middle finger on his throwing hand.

“Just a lot of flushing that area out,” Price said. “Just trying to calm that area down and get that swelling out, because whenever it swells, it just puts a lot of pressure on all of the nerves and the tendon that's going into my hand and my fingers.”

As Price understands it, there is no single cause for his case of carpal tunnel syndrome, video games like Fortnite or otherwise. He said he would stop playing the games at the field -- “that's already caused enough noise,” he said -- but he said he knows they’re not the issue.

“This is something that happens over time. It didn’t stem from any one thing,” Price said. “I was born in 1985, that’s the video games generation. Being a Red Sox is the least amount of video games I’ve ever played. Being in major league baseball, it’s a very common thing, especially with my generation of that age . . . It’s not something that happened this year. This is a spot I’ve always had to had worked out. It just got a lot worse.

The circulation matter leaves Price with “very cold hands and very cold feet,” he said. 

“The lady asked me if I could pitch with a heated glove on,” Price said of one exam, “and I said no ma’am.”

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